


After the Fall

by Starfurious



Series: Eyes as Deep as Space [3]
Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Adult Language and Situations, F/M, Phase babies make for massive age gaps, Post-Dominion War (Star Trek), Space idiots, lost sheep returned
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:15:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24614365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starfurious/pseuds/Starfurious
Summary: While the Enterprise is undergoing repairs following the engagement with the Son'a, Will and Deanna return to Betazed for the first time since the Dominion occupation.
Relationships: William Riker/Deanna Troi
Series: Eyes as Deep as Space [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/948285
Comments: 18
Kudos: 56





	1. Home

The shimmer of the transporter faded, leaving Deanna Troi standing on a once-familiar river bank in the bright Betazoid sunshine. As she stared down at the newly grown grass she tried to gather enough courage to look up at the house she knew sat part way up the rise. Strong fingers gave her hand an encouraging squeeze and drew her attention to the steady presence of Will beside her, and she leaned into his warmth for a few short moments, allowing his affection to wash over her senses before she took a deep breath and lifted her gaze.

Whatever devastation she had imagined, seeing it was worse. The ancient dzharla tree that had stood here longer than any building, providing fruit in the winter, and shade in the scorching summer, was gone. Terran roses and Cyndri leyils had been pulled up, rambling utaberry bushes burned away, to make room for an ugly duracrete landing pad. Carved into the shimmering white stone of the house itself were the harsh grey angles of the Cardassian emblem. Vehicle tracks carved deep wounds into lawns and flowerbeds, and a small group of meditation statues lay smashed besides a path intended for bare feet not heavy wheels and plasma exhaust. Most heart breaking of all though, was the heavy metal door that had been bolted into the once-open entrance. The thick hinges were driven, she knew, through the traditional greeting of her people that Will had chiselled into the inside of the archway on the day they’d moved in so many years ago.  
“You are no longer welcome” that door said, “This is not your home,” 

Tears gathered in her black eyes, and she felt Will’s anger flash through her then fade into something more like longing as he took in the details for himself. He pulled her into his chest. His arms wrapped around her, holding her body close while her mind wound through his, dark and heavy, binding them closer together; her sorrow like a shroud for his thoughts.  
“God, Dee,” he breathed “I’m sorry”

She leaned back a little, so that she could look at him without leaving his embrace, letting him see the faintest of sad smiles on her lips. ~As am I~ whispered across the fragile bridge of feeling between them, and he kissed her forehead in reply, wishing he could take away both their pain.

The Enterprise had been at the front, leading the defense of the forward hospital station at Star base 371 when notification came in that Deanna’s homeward had fallen to the Dominion. Sleep deprived, and battle-worn from repelling almost constant enemy sorties, he hadn’t been able to think about what that had really meant at the time. There had been a moment in an engagement with three Galor class warships and their Jem’Hadar escort, though, when he’d felt something pull at the back of his consciousness. It had felt like someone grabbing part of his brain and forcing his head around to look at her. 

She’d been frozen in place; hands clenched so hard he could make out blood seeping from her closed fists where her nails must have been digging into flesh. Her already midnight eyes had been wide and impossibly darker in the flickering red lights, and she’d been staring straight ahead, like she was watching something terrible only she could see. It had only lasted a few seconds, and she’d gone back to ordering trauma teams to the most damaged areas of the ship like nothing had happened, but he’d wondered, when he’d read the reports, if she’d felt it happen somehow. He’d never asked, and she hadn’t wanted to talk about it, even when the casualty reports had started coming in. But knowing what had been happening to her world, even feeling her hurting over it, wasn’t the same as seeing the aftermath first-hand. It was real now; personal.

She’d bought this house on the lazy Nara river, a few miles outside Katarin City but accessible only by boat or transporter, as a place to escape to when she’d returned to Betazed to complete her doctorate, and he’d lived there with her for most of the two years he was posted planetside. They’d laughed, and argued, and made love in this house. He’d asked her to marry him in the garden, and barely made it through the archway with his uniform on. Then, after they’d recovered from his career driven stupidity, and they were serving together, they had come back here on shore-leaves to forget their responsibilities for a while, and avoid her mother for as long as they could. He’d been happy here, and the Cardassians had taken it over and left it scarred and desolate. Treated it with the same contempt they showed everything outside their own species. He’d be damned though, if he’d let it stay that way. They’d repaired their relationship, in the end, and they could repair this too.

“It can be fixed,” he told her.  
“I know,” then a pause and a breath, and “It’s just a house.” Although she knew neither of them were sure they believed it. “But we can’t stay here tonight.”

He nodded once, then lifted one hand from her back to brush her long hair from her face before leaning down to kiss her softly. When he pulled back he was smiling mischievously. “I hope your mother won’t mind having us stay with her. I plan to make a lot of noise.”  
His comic delivery and waggling eyebrows were a little forced, but they had the desired effect, and she laughed a little through her tears. “I thought you’d left your trombone behind,” she said, deliberately misunderstanding what he had worked so hard to imply.  
“I did,” he smiled. “So, will I be welcome at your mother’s house despite my intentions towards her daughter?”  
She gave him a watery smile and caught his hand as she stepped away slightly. “Maybe because of them. We should call for transport before the Repulse breaks orbit.”

“You don’t want to check inside?” he asked, casting one last look up the hill at their broken home.  
She shook her head. “Not today.”

“Okay.” He tapped the comm badge on his chest “Riker to Repulse,”  
“Go ahead, commander,”  
“Change of plans. Transport us to the Fifth House. Coordinates 38.48,00,52 North, 22.49,40,62 East.”  
“Received. Stand by”

“I hope you’re ready for this, Imzadi,” murmured Troi just before the beam caught, whisking them half a continent away without giving Riker a chance to wonder what she meant.

This time there was no time for reflection. Barely twenty seconds after the transporter effect disbursed Lwaxana Troi bustled through the massive open entryway to Deanna’s ancestral home, already in full flight. Her arms were spread almost as wide as her smile as she looked them over.  
“Darlings!” she called out joyfully, “Welcome!”  
Moments later her daughter was engulfed in billowing satin as she hugged her close.  
~Mother,~ Deanna projected into the older woman’s thoughts, willingly sinking into the embrace like she had as a little girl ~I’m so glad you’re safe.~

Lwaxana’s fierce hug relaxed and her hands came up to rest on her daughter’s shoulders. She leant forwards, their foreheads meeting affectionately, and both women’s eyes slid shut for a few moments of shared warmth and peace, before she returned to her usual boisterous self.  
~Of course I’m safe, Little One!~ she thought, ~It will take more than a few overgrown lizards thinking they have more right to my home than I do to hurt me!~

Deanna smiled indulgently at that, and moved back next to Will, whom the older woman seemed not to have noticed until then.  
“Commander Riker!” she exclaimed out loud, happy knowing eyes flicking back and forth between her two visitors. “Thank the gods for that! It’s about time the two of you saw sense! All that sexual tension floating around can’t have been good for anyone on that little starship of yours! Really; Imzadi spending so much energy trying to deny a link that strong! How long are you staying, Dears? The house is almost full of guests right now, but you can have the rooms overlooking the solarium in the east wing, that way you can be as energetic as you like and you won’t disturb anyone!”

Despite growing up in an open society, surrounded by Lwaxana’s eccentricities, there were somethings Deanna would rather not discuss with her mother. Will, though, seemed to take it all in his stride.  
~You see, Imzadi,~ he thought, smiling that charming easy smile she’d seen him use when he’d found something particularly amusing during diplomatic proceedings and couldn’t laugh about it ~your mother expects us to make a lot of noise too!~  
Out loud he said only “Thank you Mrs Troi, We’ll just be with you for a few days, while we arrange accommodation in the city,”

“Call me Lwaxana, William; we’re practically family, after all. And stay as long as you like. Fleet housing in the city is all those awful temporary shelters since the Dominion destroyed the embassy buildings and the main spaceport. Myrresh Chel said he’d requested your help with the re-build while the Enterprise is having a new wasp core, or some such nonsense fitted, and you’ll be terribly uncomfortable in one of those little boxes for that long! There are 34 families staying with me already, you two will be no trouble.”

“Thank you, Mother” Deanna replied sincerely, for once not dreading spending a protracted amount of time in Lwaxana’s company. 

The war had been traumatic for them all, but arguably more so for an empath who had had to shoulder the stress and horror of an entire crew along with her own. She’d increased her meditation practice, struggling to stay centred under the crushing weight of emotion, but some nights it hadn’t been enough, and she’d cried herself to sleep in Will’s arms, barely sure of where their suffering finished and her own began. It had got worse when Betazed fell, and she’d started to worry about her mother, and the little half-brother she’d never met. 

So now Lwaxana’s over the top exuberance, the sheer joy with which she threw herself into life, and even her head-long charge into her daughter’s personal business, were a blessed relief to Deanna. It felt like cool, clear water washing over her weary soul, and she welcomed it with an open heart.  
~I’ve missed you~ she whispered into her mother’s mind.

Happy tears filled Lwaxana’s eyes as she linked her arms through theirs and started to lead them into the house.  
“Yes, yes. Well come along! Barin will be waking up from his nap soon, and he’ll be excited to meet you,” she said “And in the mean-time, you two can tell me what your plans are, and when I can expect you to give me some grandchildren to keep him company. None of us are getting any younger, you know!”

Will chuckled at that, rolling his eyes good humouredly and looking at his lover over his not-quite-mother-in-law’s head. ~Nice to know that some things never change, Imzadi~ he sent.

~Yes, it is,~ Deanna replied in kind. This was, she reflected, reassuringly normal.


	2. Chapter 2

Exhaustion, and a five-hour time difference meant that the sun was already hot and high against a bright cloudless sky when Will woke up the following morning. It danced through the spaces between strips of soft, gauzy textile that hung across the open window, and painted patterns of golden light across Deanna’s pale skin. On the ship she usually woke well before him but here, at home and at peace without the chance of an early emergency or the press of a thousand unguarded minds so close to hers, she slept on. 

She lay on her front, face turned away from him and mostly hidden by the fall of her thick dark hair. Her arms were folded under her head on the soft pillow, lifting her shoulders and deepening the enticing arch of her back. Unable to resist, he reached out and traced two fingers along the delicate column of her spine, stopping just shy of touching the sensitive slits that formed the opening to her secondary airway. She moaned in her sleep, and pushed up against his hand, seeking more contact.

“Will,” she breathed, smooth skin and warm air teasing his fingertips on her exhale.

He smiled in response, brushing her hair away, and moving over her to kiss the nape of her neck. When his lips became his tongue he felt her waking presence unfurl inside his mind, like petals stroking against his thoughts.

~Good morning, Imzadi~

“Yes,” He sighed into her inhumanly warm flesh, “It is,” His clever fingers ran along the fine openings on either side of her spine, drawing a gasp, and a flutter of arousal somewhere deep between them. “You’re so beautiful,”

“Will,” she lifted slightly, and rocked up against him, making them both groan at the feel of his morning erection on her ass.

He ground himself down into her seeking more friction, full and heavy already. “Can you feel what you do to me, Imzadi?” he asked. One strong arm looped around her waist, and pulled her hips up harder into his while the other hand continued to play with the most alien part of her. 

Their arousal crackled along her nerves and settled in a burning ache between her legs ~Gods, yes~ 

He felt the uneven breath against his fingers at the same moment that the words pushed through his mind, thick and wanting ~yes~ she parted her thighs around his and shoved them both back until she was curled over in his lap. Her breasts pressed against the tops of his muscular legs, and he could feel her hard nipples drag and catch in the wiry hair as she slid closer. ~please~ Her hips opened for him, and her core brushed inviting moisture against the base of his cock. 

“Tell me,” he panted, “Tell me what you want.” He used the hand on her back to push her down against his thighs, controlling how much she could move as he stroked her wetness with his other hand, teasing her tight opening, but determined not to push inside before he had her clear consent.

She bowed and twisted in his hold, looking back at him with black eyes smouldering like coals. Her presence flared in his mind, blooming then catching light, almost burning away his own consciousness under the intensity of her desire. Then the words came. The way that “Fuck me, Imzadi,” tumbled from her full lips, part prayer and part command, so completely at odds with the softly spoken woman others knew her as, nearly stole the last of his self-control. 

“Fuck,” he grunted harshly, then let go and slowly guided himself to her. He sank, mind and body into pleasure. “Fuck,” he repeated, shaking with restraint as he forced himself still “You okay?”

Deanna lowered her head, and smiled, enjoying the feeling of having him so deep inside her, and the way his concern lapped over their burning lust. “More than okay,” she sighed, and slowly and deliberately tightened her spiralling internal muscles, drawing him even further in. When they were together like this, he filled her up so completely it felt like her soul would burst out of her body and fly away. It was only fair that she returned the favour. 

“Fuck,” he gasped out one last time. Then his fingers wrapped around her hipbones and he started to thrust. 

Gently at first, in long smooth strokes that pulled him out until his thick head caught against her final tight coil before plunging back in, then steadily faster and harder until they surrendered to the inevitable blaze of passion. They shouted the joy of their completion to the hot midday sun, and tumbled together across the twisted sheets, gasping from exertion. 

They were still tangled around each other and waiting for their heart-rates to settle less than a minute later when the doors opened, and Mr Homn slipped unobtrusively into the room carrying a tray of stuffed oskoid and heavily spiced tsava wheat. He was followed by a not so silent Lwaxana, who didn’t seem to mind at all that they were naked, and clearly recovering from some fairly energetic sex.

“My Darlings!” she cried out happily “I’m glad to see you taking my request for grandchildren so seriously, but it’s almost 2 in the afternoon, and I thought you’d want something to eat!”

Will’s glacier blue eyes snapped wide open when he heard her voice from inside their room, and he sat bolt upright on the messy bed, desperately reaching out with his hands for something to cover himself with. Deanna just rolled her eyes and passed him a pillow, before rolling back up onto her knees to face her mother. 

“Thank you, mother,” she said, firm but resigned to the situation “but perhaps next time you could knock?” She wasn’t bothered by her own nudity at all, particularly when she was at home and they were so very clearly off duty, but she would have preferred a little warning before she had to face anyone only moments after Will had broken her world apart and put it back together again, especially her mother. 

If Lwaxana heard the disapproval in her daughter’s tone, though, she chose to ignore it. “From what I could hear, you both must have really worked up an appetite!” she smiled, and walked across the room to sit down on her daughter’s side of the bed, indicating to the towering manservant that he should put the tray down between them. “After lunch you can introduce yourselves to some of my guests. They certainly know you’re here after all that noise!”

“Mother!” Deanna hissed, torn between embarrassment and laughter, and nervously glanced sideways at a rather shell-shocked Will Riker. “Will's human. You can’t just say things like that!”

“Why not? They’re true after all!” came the immediate response “It was quite impressive, really. I didn’t know Commander Riker had it in him, although I suppose it was you who-

“Mrs Troi!” the very out of uniform commander interrupted before she could finish what he was sure she was about to say. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take a shower.” Then, still clutching the pillow to his groin, he stood and carefully made his way to the door to the suite’s bathroom. 

When he had gone, neither woman could resist the soft ripple of amusement building between them, and for a brief moment low feminine laughter filled the room at Will’s expense. After they had calmed down, Lwaxana reached forward to brush a hand affectionately through her daughter’s tousled dark hair “Human men are so easy to tease, Little One. Your father was the same way.”

Deanna’s smile deepened as she basked in the warmth of her mother’s remembrance for a while, before her eyes lit up with mischief and she asked “Did your mother ever walk in on you after you had just had sex?”

“Oh gods no!” Lwaxana exclaimed “Your father was barely welcomed into the house before we were married and your grandparents realised that they had no choice!” she paused for a few seconds, remembering something else, then her smile grew soft and she said “They were so happy, though, when we had Kestra and you. They loved you both very much.”

“I know,” Deanna said, feeling her mother’s sincerity but also recalling the sense of warmth and family that had always surrounded her when she had visited her grandparents as a child, even before she had grown into her empathy. 

“Yes, well…” The older woman was still smiling warmly despite the tears gathering in her eyes at the memory of her parents’ presence, “Perhaps I should leave you to clean up and eat. I will wait for you in your father’s rose garden, that way William won’t have to keep hiding in the bathroom.” Then the wistful smile cracked into a far more familiar wicked grin “Although what he thinks he has to be ashamed of I have no Idea. He really is quite well developed through all that Terran body hair, and I’m going to see it all when you two finally get around to a formal wedding ceremony, anyway!”

Deanna chuckled, shaking her head at her mother’s deliberately over the top enthusiasm “Goodbye, mother,” she said pointedly, “We’ll see you in about half an hour,”

Lwaxana nodded once, and stood up to leave “As you wish, My Dear. I’ll go and find your brother in the meantime; and try to get him out of whatever trouble he’s about to get himself into.”

When the doors had firmly closed behind their departing visitor, Deanna went into the bathroom, and found Will about to turn the shower water off. “Don’t do that,” she told him “I still need to clean up the mess you made of me,”

He smiled, his blue eyes appreciatively flicking up and down her naked form “You look beautiful like that, Imzadi,” he said as he reached out to pull her towards him. “Is it safe now?”

“Mother has gone elsewhere to wait for us, if that’s what you mean,”

“Good.” And he leaned down to kiss her under the stream of warm water.

As he broke away for air and looked down at her with hot blue eyes, she was clinging to his shoulders and he could feel her desire for him shuddering through his mind as she struggled to control it, but somehow she managed to shake her head “We have half an hour before she comes looking for us again,”  
He lowered his mouth to her ear, and nipped gently at the lobe ”That’s enough time, I promise” he whispered as his hands came up to cup her breasts, one thumb stroking over a mark he had left there, and when he felt her agreement tighten deliciously around the back of his conscious thought and tug, he manoeuvred her back against the wall for round two.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Old acquaintances and new troubles make brief appearances in a garden.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to get around to this! I think it came out how I intended, although one of the characters that popped up here surprised me when I was writing it, and it sort of seems to be determined to make itself part of the series I've been writing...
> 
> There's a brief, and veiled, mention of lasting trauma, before what I hope is some cuteness to balance it out.
> 
> Thanks to everyone who commented on the last two chapters, and thank you all for waiting.
> 
> Oh, and Lwaxana was heavily pregnant when she went to Deep Space Nine in 2372, and the Enterprise's adventures with the Baku happened in '75, so I am guessing that Deanna's little brother is about 3 1/2 here. I tried not to make him too articulate, and I've met some pretty talkative 3 year olds, but if it is still too much, I guess I can fall back on Betazoids having accelerated cognitive and communicative development, which would probably make sense all things considered.

Twenty eight minutes later, still with damp hair and flushed cheeks from the shower, they emerged from the twisted boughs and hanging blossoms of the tunneled walkway that lead from the wide lawns and tropical plants at the back of the house into the, to Will at least, more familiar surroundings of a Terran rose garden. Much of it was the same as Deanna remembered from the last time she had been home, but there were changes too. Some of the deep reds were a lighter pink, or yellow now, the bushes not as full as they had been, a group of white-flowered trees behind a stone bench in one corner not as tall, nor their stems as sturdy as those in her memory. All around there were subtle, but very present, signs of replanting that made her heart ache while her reason wondered how and where her mother had found the resources to do it amid the chaos of rebuilding a world. 

~There was not so much damage here as in other places, Little One~ her mother’s voice whispered unusually softly through her soul, answering the question she hadn’t really asked ~we had rootstock, and enough plants left to take cuttings, and it helped; healed the garden and ourselves to put it right~ 

A smiling Lwaxana moved out of a small crowd towards them “But who am I talking to about therapy!” she continued out-loud, her voice as rich and merry as it always was despite the melancholy of her previous thoughts.

“Talking?” asked Will, not really confused by what she meant, but more wondering what he had missed by being the only human in the ‘conversation’

“Oh! Apologies, William!” the older Betazoid smiled, and tapped the side of her forehead with one finger “I forget sometimes when I’m here, to speak as I think! And you communicate so easily with Deanna that it’s difficult to remember that you can’t hear the rest of us!”

The commander smiled back diplomatically “No problem, Mrs Tr- er, Lwaxana, “ he corrected himself before she could do it for him, again, “We’re on Betazed, and I guess I should be honoured that you forgot I don’t belong here,”

“Oh! Nonsense!” she cried, “Of course you belong here! You’re Deanna’s Imzadi, our home is yours, and even that wasn’t true, for whatever silly Starfleet reason, there are plenty of off-worlders here right now. Come on both of you, there are people who have been waiting all morning to see you again!” and without waiting to check that they were following – although he guessed she wouldn’t need to - she turned and lead them back towards the group she had emerged from moments before, clearly aiming for someone in particular.

The crowd, many of whom Deanna knew vaguely as families from the local area, or relatives of servants or others who might be traditionally be regarded as connected to the Fifth House, parted silently without even having to look up. They simply felt an approaching intent, and realising that they were not it’s object, moved out of the way. The first time Will had seen it happen, years ago, it had given him the creeps, but now it was just a convenient benefit of social telepathy, and something he missed when he was elsewhere. 

Eventually, Lwaxana’s journey through the throng of people she had evidently welcomed into her home took a sharp right, and ran into someone who couldn’t sense them coming. Someone whom Will and Deanna recognised instantly, although neither of them had expected to see her again after the way they had parted company. 

Older, and dressed in civilian clothes, Ro Laren was still as awkwardly square shouldered and pre-emptively defiant as she had ever been. “Commanders,” she greeted them with one quirked eyebrow, staring unflinchingly back at Riker as if she was daring him to object to her being there.

And, stung by old betrayals, he couldn’t stop his harsh, impulsive response “What the hell are you doing here, Lieutenant?!” 

It earnt him a loud “William! Really!” from a disapproving Lwaxana, and a gentle restraining hand on the shoulder from Deanna as she stepped around him to stand between them and offer their former ship mate a much more civil greeting.

“Laren, it’s good to see you again.” She said sincerely, a welcoming smile gracing her lips. For everything she’d felt about Ro’s defection at the time, she’d always understood what had driven it, and even come to empathise with the decision. And she was glad to see the other woman again, alive, safe and relatively sound. The chances of her, or any of the Maquis, surviving had seemed vanishingly small when the Cardassians had joined the Dominion. “Are you helping with the rebuilding?”

The younger woman shrugged, still uncomfortable when the empath’s endless black gaze focused on her like this, even after all the years that had passed, and as usual the discomfort came out as defensive, or rude, depending on who you were. “I’m trying,” she said dismissively.

Lwaxana though, was more than willing to rescue her from herself “Much more than that!” she enthused “Laren has been a wonder! Helping with the clearance and talking to the children. Myrresh said that he doesn’t know what he’d do without her, although officially he can’t even admit that she’s here!”

Deanna’s smile deepened as she studied the erstwhile lieutenant, “Then thank you,”

Ro shrugged again, but this time the corners of her mouth lifted in a wry little smile in return. “I know what it’s like, remember, to watch those spoon headed bastards destroy your world and take whatever they want,” she told the counselor “I saw some horrible things when I was growing up in the camps, but some of the older kids here, they had to FEEL it happen too, when their parents were… I can’t imagine what that was like.”

“You don’t have to. Sometimes listening, and trying to understand, is enough”

“I guess. But I want to DO something!”

“I know you do. And so does everyone else here, even Will when he’s not being so bull headed about it!” she said, rolling her head back against his chest so that he could see the affectionate warmth in her dark eyes, in case he’d missed the tingle of her emotions where they threaded through his own. “It means more than you might think.”

“Okay,” The Bajoran still didn’t sound convinced, though.

“And I’m glad you’re here, Ro,” added Will, by way of a peace offering.

Her brow twitched again at that, and she recovered some of her characteristic blunt confidence “Rather than carved up by a Cardassian disruptor, or locked in a Federation prison, you mean?”

He wasn’t phased. “Well, yes,” if anything it was comforting to know that none of her rough edges had been worn off during the war. “But it’s good to see you again, anyway.”

“It scares me a little that you might actually believe that, Riker. What are the higher ups going to think of their recruitment poster first officer consorting with a wanted terrorist?” She needled.

“They’ll think whatever they want to. It doesn’t make it less true.”

“Well good!” interjected Lwaxana, keen to avoid a spectacle, for once, now that her future son-in-law seemed to be coming to terms with one of her favourite guests. “You’ll be seeing a lot more of each other if you’re both working with minister Chel!”

Will’s blue eyes shot wide open at that, but he didn’t have time to respond before he was interrupted by an excited young voice yelling Deanna’s name from somewhere behind them. They all turned, and Deanna dropped to her knees on the grass, opening her arms as a dark haired little boy, who must have been almost six inches taller than he had been last time they’d seen each other, flew into them. 

“Deanna!” he said, hugging her tightly “You’re here!”

“Hello, Barin,” she responded warmly, wrapping her arms around him in return “It’s good to be home,”

He looked up at the people behind her, grinning over his shoulder at the Bajoran “Hi Laren!” he shouted next to his sister’s ear, making her flinch slightly, but not so much that he noticed. Then he turned to look at the only person there he didn’t know, and proved without any shadow of a doubt that he was Lwaxana’s son, even if the boisterous manners and fine dark features hadn’t been enough, by demanding “You Deanna’s husband?”

Lwaxana, always helpful in such matters, answered for Will before he had chance “Yes. In practically every way that counts except one.”

“Mother!” Deanna rolled her eyes at the older Betazoid, at about the same time that Ro turned on Riker.

“Really?” asked the Bajoran.

The commander shrugged, totally calm as he stared back at her “It’s come up,” he told her evenly.

Ro smiled “Well, thank the Prophets for that! You weren’t fooling anyone on the Enterprise, you know!”

“So Mother has told us.” Deanna said, getting back up from where she knelt with her brother, and lifting the little boy onto her hip, so she could turn them both around to face the others. “Repeatedly”

“And I was right!” 

“Perhaps,” allowed Deanna, admitting it to herself, and Will, at the same time as she admitted it to her mother, then quickly returning her attention to Barin “This is Will,”

“Hi Will,” The little boy leaned back in his sister’s arms to look up at the tall commander with the same intelligent black eyes she had, “You’re Deanna’s husband, so I am eh’zhal?” he asked, making his sister gasp, and tense up for a moment as she struggled to hold on to him in her surprise.

She really hoped that neither her Imzadi, nor Ro Laren, had recognised the diminutive form of the Cyndri word for uncle. “Not yet,” she told him, eyes pleading with Lwaxana to be quiet on the subject, just this once, “Why don’t you show us the tree house you and mother were telling me about when I saw you on the Starbase?”

Barin’s wide smile returned, any thought of nephews or nieces abruptly forgotten as he pointed to a path at the bottom of the rose garden, “It’s that way!” he shouted “Down by the swimming lake!”

“Then let’s go,” suggested Will. His expression gave no hint of whether he had understood the boy’s earlier question or not, but as Deanna and her brother moved past him to lead the way to the lake, she heard his teasing voice clearly in her thoughts. ~Tell me, Imzadi, why is everyone in your family insisting that I father your children, except you?~

Instead of giving him the satisfaction of any kind of response, she just kept walking.

**Author's Note:**

> A few things that I feel I need to mention:
> 
> I have never written Lwaxana before, but it was unexpectedly fun. I'm not sure I got the characterisation completely right, but I had a blast trying. I don't think my exclamation mark has ever had that much use!
> 
> Recently I went on a bit of a reading binge, and have been revisiting a lot of the fantastic coda/extension/gap-fill fic written by Leyenn, vega_voices and glitteratiglue. And that is what inspired me to dust off my keyboard and attempt this. So thank you to them for getting me writing again. 
> 
> I think this stands up alright as a one-shot, but I have plans to continue it (hence the rating), and I will be taking liberties, as ever, with Betazoid culture and/or biology as I go...
> 
> It would be great to hear what you think, particularly if you have any suggestions for improvements.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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